dan wetzel

Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Will Smith was shot and killed in April of 2016. NEW ORLEANS – In a special session, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court will open Saturday, 9:30 a.m. sharp, where Cardell Hayes is expected to take the stand in his own defense. Will Smith, a former New

Across four Thursday morning hours here at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, the second-degree murder trial of Cardell Hayes reached its most heated, most theatrical and most intense moments yet. Hayes is charged with killing former New Orleans Saints great Will Smith. Kevin O’Neal was the witness

Richard Hernandez says he is 5-foot-8, although that’s probably stretching it. The 28-year-old boat operator doesn’t look like much of a fighter but in Orleans Criminal District Court here Wednesday he was described as “very aggressive,” “wild” and “ridiculous” – all while being openly mocked by prosecution

She hobbled to the witness stand because that’s how you have to do it when someone shoots both of your legs. “I don’t want sympathy,” Racquel Smith said looking directly at the jury here at Orleans Criminal District Court.

They sat at opposite ends of the first row here at Orleans Criminal District Court, where a man named Cardell Hayes stood trial for the murder of Will Smith, their friend, their coworker, their old teammate on the New Orleans Saints. Steve Gleason, in his motorized wheelchair and breathing machine due

Stick around after, however, to consider the challenges at hand, the heavy lifting required to get it right and why college football might not want to jump right now. Start with an eight-team field, with each of the five major conferences earning an automatic bid for their champion, however each conference

Mike McQueary was awarded more than $12 million in damages in two lawsuits against Penn State. It was five years after the scandal broke nationally, costing McQueary his once-promising football coaching career, Joe Paterno his job and iconic reputation and Sandusky, the former Nittany Lions defensive

If there is hope for a Woods late-career resurgence, a return to competing for tournament victories after injuries to his back/knee/Achilles/pride/and who knows what else, well, maybe that is the key – the precious putter. “I’ve put some old clubs back in the bag,” Woods said. “I’m going to try to

The Southeastern Conference awards its football champion an impressive trophy that includes a running back trying to leap over a blocker and a tackler. It’s a pretty cool ode to the kind of goal-line play a Herschel Walker or Bo Jackson once made. Instead, they could hand out a diorama of the South

The conference championship game was a made-for-television creation designed to solve another made-for-television creation: conference expansion. Then college football conferences kept embarking on that initial made-for-television creation – expanding and expanding – to the point the made-for-television

Outside it was cold and gray and hostile, exactly as these Michigan-Ohio State games are supposed to be. Outside there were eyes overflowing with tears and a field overflowing with fans and a scoreboard that read Ohio State 30, Michigan 27, which didn’t even begin to tell the whole tale of what had

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was asked Monday what people in Ohio should think of him, since, thanks to his personality quirks, some view him as crazy and some just crazy like a fox. “Not crazy,” Harbaugh said, which in itself was a little crazy. In Columbus, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer continued his

Texas hasn’t officially fired its football coach, Charlie Strong. There is no way Charlie Strong is returning to the Longhorns next season, certainly not after losing to Kansas and falling to 5-6 in his third of three uninspired, unimpressive seasons in Austin. While Texas is a program famous for being

The topics are as varied as they are casual, typical guy talk, from the current plight of Michigan State football, to what he taught some kids at a recent youth basketball clinic, to whether Alabama’s football team is so good it could beat the Cleveland Browns. At 39 his head is clean shaven, which

After – this time – his defense made the play to win the game, after – this time – Seattle defeated New England at the goal line, after – this time – he could shrug off a bold late-game coaching decision with the strength of a victor, Pete Carroll jogged, skipped and slapped his way off the field here

During one of the preliminary bouts of UFC 205 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, Ari Emanuel, now the boss at the Ultimate Fighting Championship, took a stroll around the Octagon, surveying his new business and new toy. This was a grand night for such a walk, an electric midtown Manhattan atmosphere

You don’t have to vote in America. Colin Kaepernick had harsh words for each of the major party presidential candidates. Kaepernick has spent the past few months demanding that football fans contemplate social injustice, most notably violence by police against African Americans and other people of

Paparazzi and oversized entourage in tow, Conor McGregor hit up the Cartier store on Fifth Avenue on Monday. The UFC always wanted to do New York big, always wanted to make a splash in the city. Now that UFC 205 is set for Madison Square Garden on Saturday, they were more than happy to unleash their

Lake Erie is why Cleveland exists, a city built a couple of centuries ago on a perfect port for freighters to haul coal and corn and iron and manufacturing to global markets. Lake Erie provides its summer entertainment and its wicked winter winds and its sunsets that bloom across the sky. Tuesday was

In the long history of NCAA enforcement – the first case dates back to 1953 – there’s never been a paragraph written like the one released Thursday from its case against the University of Louisville men’s basketball program. “[An assistant coach] provided impermissible inducements, offers and/or extra

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